The9

I thought that at the time from the Northam, haven't seen it back on tv yet. But it looked like he poked the ball off Ayew's right foot across his body, and then Ayew went over his outstretched leg. Still surprised Sinclair scored it, tbh.

WHOOSH!

In order to be able to pick Yoshida, Caulker and Targett behind them. It was the one option I didn't think we'd take because Villa have offered no attacking threat this season and as you allude to, that's a very defensive formation. Romeu was my MotM, solid first half and worked his balls off trying to get some uptempo passing in the second half. Got to say I didn't notice Wanyama being particularly bad, he got clattered at one point and was playing through that. Yoshida's goal was just what we needed at that time, and he and Targett were competent defensively against a side which were happy to whack crosses from deep at Gestede. I thought Caulker looked well off the pace, Gestede is good in the air but Caulker was getting outjumped even with a run at it, and on the floor he just doesn't look confident. Juanmi did something in the first half that put me in mind of an old Neil McCann and he's going to have to sort that out - but he's still got plenty of potential. I note no-one is talking about Gaston again any more. As for squad depth - we finished the match with a better side than we started it - Steven Davis showed precisely why he's a regular starter when he came on, straight into in, everything done at pace and high tempo, makes us so much more difficult to defend against. Tadic also gave us an attacking option that we missed from the defensive full-backs. Koeman was spot on to go uber-defensive and assume we were going to score, but Stekelenburg got us out of jail TWICE in the first half.

Yeah yeah, so now you've changed your argument AGAIN, because, for example, Everton - who were a threat to us earlier sufficient for us not to bother picking the first team in your original argument, now aren't worth worrying about. And Birmingham beating Villa "wasn't an upset", even though Villa finished in the top half and Birmingham got relegated AND they didn't beat them in either Prem match. Admittedly West Ham got relegated with them. I do enjoy the "beating Liverpool doesn't count because it was in the early stages", because that's precisely why your "can't win don't try" "brick walls" argument was such nonsense in the first place. We DEFINITELY have a stronger squad in terms of depth (in my opinion), but arguably we have a weaker team because our first XI isn't as good. So better prepared to challenge in the cups when players are rotated out, but maybe not as good in the league. Incidentally, no-one is saying "we're going to win it", we're saying "we should try and win it". Maybe click your own link? One other thing - find me any club at all that's beaten three strong opponents - that's kind of the thing with a cup, generally you don't have to beat all the top sides, someone else does a lot of it for you.

It's still not a "fact". "People are angry" is a fact. "People are justifiably angry" is an opinion.

The "positive" comments seem to say something akin to "he's technically good but that doesn't matter when he's shoved off the ball all the time" to me.

Wouldn't be a massive departure from playing Long and Rodriguez instead of Pelle against MK. Though obviously in theory the opposition is better.

He's also played more games against worse players... don't make me post those stat links about penalties not being a lottery again.

So apart from making up some stuff about smaller League Cup winners which isn't true, passing off some opinions as fact about squad depth which don't stand up to much scrutiny, and completely changing your argument from "can't win, don't try" to "assess probabilty based on continuation in the competition of named opponents we're not even necessarily playing" despite last night's upsets, I'd say that was a sound and coherent argument.

I'd also point out that "people were justifiably angry" is an opinion. As well as the stuff about whether we'd have beaten Hull, Sheff U and Arsenal.

Oh, and just for the hell of it, when Middlesbrough won it in 2004, they beat Everton, Spurs, and Arsenal over two legs.

Swansea beat Liverpool away and Chelsea over two legs. Birmingham beat Villa, West Ham and Arsenal. You are basically making stuff up.

Previously there has been little correlation between OS appearances and team ones. If anything we use it as a way to offset people NOT appearing.

I'm not sure he will, Davis has played weekends and internationals all month and is the kind of player who we can rely on in the League against Bournemouth - we have plenty of other midfielders for tonight who are up to the job and aren't getting a look in.

Partially to allow them to spend money on their infrastructure so they can have higher FFP expenditure on wages, and partially to prevent other big clubs recruiting and developing players with potential - if they manage to get one into the first team I'm fairly sure that's an unexpected bonus. When their U21s took ours apart at the end of last season they had one DM whose name escapes me who was FAR better than JWP or Reed, yet he's not even made a first team squad as far as I'm aware. Iheanacho seems to be getting a look in though.

Someone hasn't been paying attention... Decisions I can see being relevant. Assuming players other than Mane, Long, Rodriguez, McQueen are fit. Stekelenburg unless Koeman really needs to see Gazzaniga. Playing Davis is nonsensical by any measure other than 2 injuries. Usual back 4 - unless Koeman wants to rest Cedric (Yoshida or Martina could start), or wants to give Caulker a run (Van Dijk or Fonte could be rested). Can't see Bertrand missing out as he's only just come back. Midfield - we won't play Wanyama AND Romeu, but Romeu is the obvious replacement if Wanyama is rested. Clasie seems likely to play to get him more gametime. JWP didn't start on Sunday but Tadic did. Juanmi will probably start and Ramirez will appear at some point. Juanmi is a possible Pelle replacement (as we played without Pelle in the last round) but so far has played as an AM. It's very difficult to know which midfield options RK will go with: -----Stekelenburg Cedric-Fonte-VVD-Bertrand -----Romeu-Clasie JWP-Ramirez-Juanmi --------Pelle But it could just as easily be ----Romeu-JWP Tadic-Clasie-Juanmi ------Pelle or ----Romeu-Clasie JWP-Ramirez-Juanmi ------Pelle or he might pick Wanyama. We could have Mane/Long/Rodriguez all back on Sunday for AFCB so that's got to be a consideration.

This isn't 1996, Saints very rarely mess up like this any more (ok, Midtjyllland and Sheff Utd), why the "we will lose to everyone" stress?

If you can think of one reason which isn't "Stekelenburg isn't available" why he would do that, I'll be impressed.

Chelsea, Leicester (and Arsenal) out, better than hoped.

Well, three penalty shoot outs, come on the underdogs...

90th minute no less. Bardsley sent off for Stoke too in 93rd minute, with extra time to come in 3 of the 4 games.

If it was as simple as "need to ship out Gaston to afford Toby" it was a bit of a no-brainer in a side that ended up being defined by its defensive strength.

Generally, but he's shrewd enough to make allowances for scheduling pile-ups and suchlike. So we might see a bit of Gaston tomorrow too.

First game back for Shawcross which might make a difference. And yeah, the names are more impressive than the product, but I'm just being easily impressed by a bloke who was at Barcelona 9 years ago.

Seem to be a LOT of injuries tonight - if they weren't for teams and players with regular midweek European matches I'd be mooting some half-baked theory about not being properly prepared for midweek games in colder evening conditions. However...